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Tuesday, 29 November 2016

396) Mahseer: A Special Cover issued by the Department of Posts, India in co-ordination with the Forest Department, Madhya Pradesh on 09.09.2016:

396) Mahseer:
A Special Cover issued by the Department of Posts, India in co-ordination with
the Forest Department, Madhya Pradesh on 09.09.2016:

The Front of the Special
Cover issued on 09.09.2016

The Front of the Special
Cover shows a picture of a forested river adjoining the rocky foreground formed
by volcanic lava/ash over the millennia and a fisherman standing with his catch
of a large Mahseer. Below the image are mentioned “Vanavalon Ki Nadiyon Mein Mahasheer Ka Sanrakshan – Sanvardhan” (in
Hindi) and “Conservation of Mahseer in Forested Rivers” (in English). The
Special Cover bears a 500 Paise or Rs.5/- stamp which is titled “Ganga Ki Dolphin” (in Hindi) and
“Gangetic Dolphin” (Platanista gangetica)
(in English). The Cancellation hand-stamp bears the inscription “Vanavalon Ki Nadiyon Mein Mahasheer Ka Sanrakshan
– Sanvardhan” (in Hindi) and “Conservation of Mahseer in Forested Rivers”
(in English). The Cancellation stamp also shows a Mahseer Fish facing right and
has been cancelled by Indore GPO. The Cancellation is dated 09.09.2016

The Back of the Special
Cover issued on 09.09.2016

The Back of the Special
Cover on the left bottom shows the emblem of the Forest Department, Madhya
Pradesh and is inscribed “Saujanya se:
Madhyapradesh Van Vibhag” (in Hindi) and “Forest Department, Madhya
Pradesh” (in English). The Cover also bears the logo of India Post together
with the name of the co-ordinating authority, Postmaster General, Indore Region

About
Mahseer:

Mahseer or “Mahasheer” (in Hindi) is a name used for
the genera Tor, Neolissochilus and Naziritor
in the family Cyprinidae (carps).

It derives its name
partially from the Sanskrit term “mahseer”
(“maha” meaning “big or enormous” and
“sher” meaning “lion” or “tiger”).
Altogether, it stands for “tiger or Lion among fish”.

The first species from
this group was scientifically described in 1822 and first mentioned as
an angling challenge in the “Oriental Sporting Magazine” in 1833.

Mahseer is one of the 20
mega fishes in the world.

Mahseer is found in rivers
and lakes across Asia – from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and
Pakistan.

It is a well-known game
fish and an angler’s delight – the size and fighting prowess of this fish makes
it popular among the recreational angling enthusiasts. It is also known as the
“King of the Fresh Water”.

The fish is capable of
ascending to rapid streams with rocky bottoms for breeding purposes. They are
omnivorous and feed on algae, crustaceans, insects, frogs and other fish, as well
as, fruits from trees overhead their habitat.

Out of the 47 Mahseer
species that exist today in the world, India is home to 15. Tor remadevi is one of the recent
species identified, while Tor moyarensis
which is confined to the Moyar river of Tamil Nadu is another.

The golden Mahseer is the largest member of the group and one of
the largest cyprinids and can grow upto a size of 2.75 metres (or 9 feet) in
length and weigh 54 kg (or 119 pounds) which is the largest size recorded so
far although Mahseer of this size is rarely seen.

The golden Mahseer lives
in fast-moving waters, inhabits hill-streams with rocky and stony substrate and
can be found in temperatures between 5 and 25 degree centigrade. It inhabits
the Himalayan foothills, the Indus, Brahmaputra and the Ganges basins as well
as down South in the Balamore, Cauvery, Tambraparini and the Kosi rivers. The
golden Mahseer population too is in a state of rapid decline since the past
three decades mainly due to distortion of rivers due to construction of river
valley projects.

Conservation
Projects:

It is commercially
exploited as an important game fish and also as a table-fish. As a result,
several of the larger species have declined alarmingly, primarily due to
pollution, habitat loss due to industrial and human pollution leading to loss
of breeding grounds, impact of River valley projects, Use of explosives,
poisons and electro-fishing by poachers, introduction of exotic species and
over-fishing etc.

Mahseer is a sensitive
species and can hardly tolerate a modified water environment. This is evident
from a decline in its length/size recorded over the last century, the size
composition (there is a predominance of young/immature individuals) and reduced
share in the catch (as low as 5% from the earlier 40% to 50% from its
distribution ranges.

Conservation of Mahaseer
projects/initiatives have been undertaken on a major footing. Projects are
afoot to improve the habitat and populations of the Mahaseer species in India,
particularly in the reservoirs and rivers of the country. Government officials,
scientists, civil society groups and anglers who are interested in the
conservation of Mahseer along with WWF-India.

WWF-India has implemented
a Species Management Plan (SMP) to conserve the golden Mahaseer species along
the River Kosi in Uttarakhand.

Tata
Power – Mahseer Conservation Project at Lonavla, Maharashtra:

Tata Power in
co-ordination with the State Fisheries Department in the late 1960s
started the Mahseer Project to help conserve this endangered species.

As a result of Tata Power’s
eco-restoration and eco-development programme, conservation of
this species was undertaken in full scale, in 1970 with a two-fold
objective – a measure of ecological enrichment of the hydel lakes
and an effort to rehabilitate major Indian carps, especially the Deccan
Mahseer, which had been decimated in their natural habitat.

Accordingly, the Company set
up a fish seed farm/breeding center down-stream of Walwhan Dam at its
Walwhan Dam Project facility at Lonavla and also established standard
techniques of breeding the Mahseer species after conducting in-depth research breeding
of over several lacs of fingerlings. Here Mahseer are reared from spawn to the
fry to the fingerling stage and then released in various reservoirs of
different states in India.

This Project was in full
flow by 1975. The Project has since its inception produced over 120,00,000
(12 million) seed of Mahseer and distributed them all over India. The hatchery
continues to breed over 3 to 5,00,000 fingerlings every year and this breeding
centre is the only one which supplies fingerlings to various states in India –
Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana etc.

Tata Power’s initiative in rehabilitation of
the Mahseer has gained international recognition with the release of
fingerlings bred at the fish seed farm into the Nam Ngum reservoir of the Lower
Mekong River basin in Laos.

This successful initiative
with the golden Mahaseer conservation over the past 40 years has given a fresh
boost in numbers to the population of this fish and saved it from
near-extinction. Despite these
efforts, the Mahseer is still an endangered species and slowly facing
extinction.

I have visited the Mahseer
conservation Project of Tata Power, at the Walwhan Dam at Lonavla when I was
doing an Ornithology course at Garware College, Pune in December 2007 as part
of our field visits. The Superintendent in Charge of the Project took us all
round the fish farm and we were very impressed with the pride and enthusiasm
displayed by his team in conserving the Mahseer.

In
Heraldry:

Interestingly, Mahseer was
an important symbol of the erst-while Princely states of Baoni, Bhopal, Kurwai
and Rampur, having its origins in the courts of Avadh and Hyderabad and was
regarded as an emblem of prosperity and the highest honour.

About Me

I am Rajeev Prasad, a retired State Bank of India officer who had been collecting coins in a shoe box without having a serious interest. Only after quitting my job I got the time to take serious interest in developing my coin collection into a hobby. A pity, because I would have had more opportunity to lay my hands on more 'exclusive coins' while in the Bank. Anyway, as they say,better late than never. If you have any views to share with me regarding this blog , please contact me on my email rajeevprasad1208@gmail.com. I also have a twitter account @prasad_rajeev.
I had an opportunity to participate in a Documentary on the life and times of the 25 paise coin titled “Chal Basi Chavanni” (The four anna/twenty five paise coin passes away), aired by STAR NEWS on 29th and 30th June 2011. The programme helped in making many persons hold back onto their “chavannis”, the little round beauties, instead of returning them to Banks .